THE KING AND THE BONDMEN.

so there be enough, it will do as well as the best for a
hungry traveller. But have ye no wine, friend Hubert ?"
 Who asks for wine in a bondman's cottage ?" was
the answer. Wine is for the nobles, but hard blows
for the thrall."
 Had ye been in London on the first entry of King
Richard," said the packman, ye would have seen wine
in plenty for all comers."
 "Did you see it, Master Dusty-foot ?" asked Cicely;
" tell us all about it."
 "I did see it: the king had come on horseback from
Richmond, attended by a procession of lords and gentle-
men, who wore such rich and costly apparel that the
like had never before been seen. Silks and velvets
from France and Italy seemed to be of no more account
to them than serge to a peasant; and there were some
of the cloaks trimmed with fur and precious stones
worth ten thousand marks a-piece. Every noble was
attended by a knight walking at each side of his horse,
and many of the gentlemen wore their hose of two
colours-one leg red and the other white, or purple and
yellow, and the peaks of their shoes curled up half-way
to their knees. It was a brave spectacle, and they went
on with trumpets and clarions sounding; and the people
who crowded the streets by thousands, and gazed from
every window, shouted with right goodwill as they
went by. It took three hours for the train to pass,
and all that time the public fountains and conduits
were made to run with wine, so that whoever would
could drink as much as he chose. Then in Chepe there
was a castle built with four towers, and on each tower
there stood a beautiful maiden waving leaves of gold
over the king's head, and scattering handfuls of gold
coins. At this there was a great blast from all the
trumpets; and the maidens descended, and filling their